Romaine had originally planned for us to spend Wednesday walking around the sculpture park at Lake Oswego, a Portland suburb. But once again, the weather was a tad too cold for my delicate sensibilities, so we decided instead to head downtown for brunch and a movie. We had brunch at a great spot called Mother's, ...where it took me not very long to decide, ...on the French toast, which turned out to be the very best French toast I've ever had, and quite possibly the best on the planet: Romaine ordered the Migas, a veggie omelet served with salsa and chipotle sauce which she likewise declared out of this world. After brunch we walk a few blocks, ...to the Fox Tower Regal Cinema, ...where we saw "The Danish Girl", the moving and thought-provoking film about Lile Elbe, the first transgender woman to undergo sex-reassignment surgery, and the complicated relationship between Lile and her wife, Gerda Wenger. The story was so compelling , the acting so captivating, and the scenery so beautiful that I was riveted to the screen, from the opening scene to the end credits. After the movie, as the sun had come out and the afternoon weather had warmed up a bit, we walked around downtown Portland for a while, …before heading back to Romaine’s house, where we hung out until it was time to leave again for dinner. We had a dinner date with Romaine’s Portland Posse, a group of her friends who call themselves Second Wednesday because they all get together every second Wednesday for dinner, taking turns picking out a restaurant, preferably someplace new and interesting. Now, technically, this past Wednesday wasn’t the second Wednesday of the month, but since I was in town Romaine asked the other Second Wednesday members who could make it if they’d mind making an exception this month, which nobody did. As it was Romaine’s turn to pick the restaurant she picked a place that she’d been to one time before, a great little ramen place near downtown called Boke Bowl. ....where we met up with Second Wednesday, a great group of gals, most of whom I already knew from past visits to Portland. The food was really good. I had the pork dashi (I believe "dashi" is another name for ramen), which was awesome. Among the other delicious dishes sampled by the Second Wednesday members were: ...and beef, pork, miso mushroom and fried chicken steam buns. Among the steam bun varieties was a peanut butter and jelly steam bun which, in truth, I just couldn't stop thinking about. I imagined a soft, warm bunful of peanut butter and jelly all melted together and just oozing deliciousness. I finally had to order one. Though not quite as amazing as I'd imagined , still my peanut butter and jelly steam bun was quite good ( and a little messy), as peanut butter and jelly tends to be by nature, and I was glad I'd ordered one, otherwise I would have gone through life wishing I had.
Sometimes you just have to go for it.
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The weather in Portland has been freezing since I've been here, the temperatures well below normal. But at my sister Romaine's house, ...it's always warm and cozy, ...and bright and cheerful, ....and delightfully arty, ...inside, ...and outside. So on Monday night after I arrived from Los Angeles and the icy road conditions made going out unadvisable, it was nice to stay home, chow down on spaghetti squash with spinach feta chicken sausage sauce (see yesterday's post) then plop down in the living room, wrap ourselves in comforters, turn on Netflix and watch "White Chicks", ...a Wayans Brothers' comedy about two black FBI agents posing as white society girls that got abysmal reviews but cracked me up all the same. Tuesday morning started off with continued icy conditions, but by afternoon the roads had melted enough for us to venture out for lunch at what I've decided is my favorite spot in Portland: a popular little Cuban restaurant (that would have been close enough to walk to from Romaine's house had the weather been warmer) called Pambiche, ...that was so crowded even in the middle of a bad-weather Tuesday afternoon, ...that we were happy to snag the last couple spots at the bar, which was nice, anyway, because we got to watch what was going on in the kitchen. The food was over-the-top delicious, the portions huge, and the presentation beautiful. I got the $8.75 Arroz Con Pollo - Rice With Chicken: ...and Romaine got the $10 Vaca Frita - Fried Cow: After our wonderful - and filling - lunch we were jonesing for a nice long walk. Now, if I were a hearty native Portlander I probably could have handled walking around outside with no problem, as many other locals were doing in spite of the brisk temperatures. But, alas, I am no Elsa; the cold always bothered me, anyway. But I did come up with the idea of going for a walk...inside the mall. So we drove to the closest mall, the Lloyd Center, ...where we walked up, down, and all around, stopping now and then to watch the skaters in the mall rink. A skating rink at a shopping mall struck me as an awesome - and totally Portland - idea.
At one point while we were walking around Romaine turned to me and said, "Oh, no, look at us! We're walking at the mall! That's what old people do! To which I replied, "Nah, we're not old people - just cold people!" ;) I've been in Portland since Monday visiting my sister Romaine, When my plane arrive from Los Angeles the Portland weather was freezing and the roads were an icy mess. Therefore after picking me up at the airport Romaine suggested that we stop on the way home at Whole Foods to stock up on some provisions and then spend the rest of the evening and, if the weather stayed bad, the following day, indoors cocooning. Now, I'm not accustomed to shopping at Whole Foods - I'm a Kroger's gal myself - so I was a little intrigued by some of the products, ...and was actually pretty good, ...topped with a lot of fruit, sugar and cinnamon. I also found some interesting-looking spinch feta chicken sausage, and the produce looked stunning, ...so I suggested that I fix us some spaghetti squash topped with a tomato sauce made with the chicken sausage instead of ground beef. The result was so auspiciously yummy that I’m considering swearing off ground beef spaghetti sauce and making only spinach feta chicken sausage sauce. Provided I can find spinach feta chicken sausage at Kroger’s. And as long as my fan base doesn’t revolt. Tommy and Randy Tom Anyway, here’s the recipe, as well as I can approximate it, having never actually measured out some of the ingredients: Spaghetti Squash Topped With Spinach Feta Chicken Sausage Tomato Sauce 1 or 2 good-sized spaghetti squashes About a pound of spinach feta chicken sausage Olive oil spray 3 15-oz. cans tomato sauce 1 12-oz. can tomato paste Oregano Lawry’s Garlic Salt Onion powder Shredded Parmesan Cheese Remove the chicken sausage from its casing. Spray a frying pan with olive oil, heat the oil, place the chicken sausage in the pan, add several shakes of the garlic salt and onion powder (sorry, I never measured) and brown the sausage. Into a large pot pour the three cans of sauce and the can of paste. Fill each sauce can about 1/4 full of water and let sit for a few minutes so that any sauce in the bottom is loosened, then stir and add to the sauce. Fill the paste can to the top with water, let sit a few minutes until any paste in the can is loosened, then stir and add to the sauce. Add about half a dozen good shakes of the garlic salt, several good shakes of the onion powder, and several good shakes of the oregano. Add about 2 tablespoons of the shredded Parmesan cheese. Pour the liquid off the browned sausage then add the sausage to the tomato sauce. Simmer for about two hours. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spit the squashes in half, remove seeds, and place in a shallow pan with an inch or two of water. Bake for 40 minutes. Remove the squash from its shell. Spoon the sauce over the squash, While we were waiting for dinner we felt like snacking a little. I suggested some of that splendid Parmesan on a cracker. Romaine, however, came up with an even better and more Portlandesque concept: Parmesan on roasted seaweed squares. This combination was so good that after I finished off all the seaweed squares I tried spooning the Parmesan over the quinoa chia crunch supergrains. It was a delightful combination
Last Saturday after Tom and I had lunch at the Kettle restaurant in Manhattan Beach, ...where we sampled the most delicious blueberry muffins on the planet. And so I asked myself, might it not be possible that I, too, could produce such a blueberry muffin, of perhaps an even better one? Now, it just so happened by random but auspicious coincidence that blueberries were on sale that very day at the Manhattan Beach Ralph's at $1.88 for a a 6 oz. box. With blueberries at that price the moment was ripe for making muffins. But first I needed a basic blueberry muffin recipe to build upon. I went on line and looked over a few, then zipped back to Ralph's, where I'm becoming a regular, ...and picked up the ingredients, Picking and choosing from a few available recipes I came up with a recipe that calls for a little more sugar than most and way more blueberries. I went crazy on the blueberries. So I call this new recipe: Go Crazy Blueberry Muffins Muffins: 3 cups flour 2 cups sugar 4 teaspoons baking powder 2/3 cup vegetable oil 2 eggs 2/3 cup milk 4 cups blueberries Streusel topping: 1/2cup sugar 1/2 cup flour 4 tablespoons butter 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (This batch of topping might end up being might 'way more topping than you need, but I haven't yet configured how to measure out a smaller batch!) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a muffin pan with muffin liners. Combine the 3 cups of flour, 2 cups of sugar, and baking powder. Add the vegetable oil. Lightly beat the eggs with the milk and stir into the flour mixture. The batter will be very stiff. Fold in the blueberries. As the batter is so stiff, I found that it was best to fold in the blueberries with a wooden spoon to keep them from being injured Fill the muffin cups to the top. It's easier to get the batter into the muffin cups if you use two spoons. To make the streusel topping: Mix together the 1/4 cup of sugar, the 1/2 of 1/3 cup of flour and the cinnamon. Cut in the 1 tablespoon of butter until it's pretty crumb-ish. Top each muffin with some streusel, maybe a tablespoon or two, but not too much, even if you end up not using all the topping (otherwise the topping might sink into the muffin, as over-heavy streusel toppings tend to do. So keep the topping on the light side). Bake for about 20 minutes (or maybe a few minute more or less according to your oven) until a toothpick in the middle comes out clean. The recipe makes about 16 muffins. Were the Go Crazy Blueberry Muffins good? They were crazy good! Spread with some butter they were magnificent. I'd even venture to say these one-up the Kettle muffins. Manhattan Beach, California On Saturday Tom and I took a walk around Manhattan Beach. We started at the entrance to Veterans Parkway, also known as "The Chip Path", a 3.75-mile walking trail that runs parallel to the ocean from Manhattan Beach to Hermosa Beach. The Chip Path - so-called for the soft mulch that covers this abandoned railroad route - is landscaped with lush local flora and fauna, ...and passes through lovely Manhattan Beach neighborhoods. We walked along the Chip Path for about a mile and a quarter until we reached downtown Manhattan Beach, ...then we walked along Highland Avenue until we reach The Kettle, a popular local eatery, ...where we stopped for lunch. Tom ordered an omlete with home fries, which he declared to be very tasty, and I ordered the French Onion Grilled Cheese Dip, ...made with mozzarella and onions and which tasted like a French onion soup sandwich and came with a side of onion soup for dipping. The whole concept, I'm sorry to say, seemed better in theory than it turned out to be in actuality. Tom also ordered blueberry muffins, These muffins were so sweet, moist and full of blueberries that I vowed then and there that I would someday take up the challenge to reproduce the delicious things in my own kitchen. After lunch we walked down to the beach, ...to the pier, ...with its beautiful panoramic views of the ocean, mountains, and shore: A pelican playing in the waves. We visited the free aquarium at the end of the pier, ...then we headed back.
For all the times I've visited Manhattan Beach I'm still moved by the beauty of this place. I've been in Los Angeles for the past week. Maybe it's the cold spell that's gripping L.A. - the locals are bemoaning the recent 40 and 50-degree daytime temperatures while waxing nostalgic over past Christmases and New Years Days spent on the beach - that set off my hosts' craving a couple days ago for a bowl of my crockpot white-bean chili. So I zipped over to Ralph's, ....picked up the necessities, ...then got to work on a batch of: Crockpot White Bean Chili 5 cans of great northern beans 6 cups of water 3 tablespoons of chicken bullion (or you can use 6 cups of chicken broth instead of the water and bullion) 1/2 an onion A few shakes of Lawrey's garlic salt (more or less depending how salty you like things) Cooked rice Shredded cheddar cheese Sour cream Salsa Taco chips Drain and rinse the beans then pour them into the crock pot. Chop the onion and add it to the beans in the pot then add the garlic salt. Bring the 6 cups of water to a boil and add the chicken bullion. When the bullion is dissolved add the broth to the crockpot. Cook on "high" for 4 hours or "low" for 8 hours. When the chili was ready we ladled it over a scoop of hot cooked rice and added garnishes of shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream and salsa, ...and used taco chips as a "spoon" to scoop up the chili. The consensus was that the chili was the perfect antidote to the cold L.A. weather. The following day our host took Tom and I out for lunch to their favorite vegan restaurant, the Native Foods in Culver City, where I was enjoying my vegetable and "chicken" wrap, ...when Tom looked up from his jicama, cucumber, quinoa, raisin and pumpkin-seed salad, ...and said to me, "You know what would really taste good for dinner? A plate of spaghetti with your home-made sauce and a nice loaf of Italian bread." In deference to our hosts' vegetarian preference he added "you can leave the meat out." So I headed back to: ...and picked up the ingredients for spaghetti with tomatoes, garlic, green onions and olive oil. Spaghetti With Tomatoes, Garlic, Green Onions and Olive Oil 1 1/2 lbs. hot cooked spaghetti 1 tablespn butter or margarine salt to taste 1/4 cup olive oil 3 15 oz. cans diced tomatoes 3 cloves garlic 1 bunch green onions 1/ 1/2 tspns salt Coat the spaghetti with the butter then season the buttered spaghetti to taste with salt. Chop the garlic and the onions. Heat the olive oil in a large pan and sauté the onions and garlic in the pan for 1 minute, then add the tomatoes and salt and cook for 2 minutes. Add the spaghetti to the tomatoes, garlic and onion and mix well. Serve with a nice slice of Italian bread and, if desired, top with shredded Parmesean. It was yummy, and worked well with the batch of oven-fried chicken I made as a side. Oven Fried Chicken 1 package of 12 chicken legs (just the legs, not with the thighs attached) 2 eggs, fork-beaten with a little water Plain bread crumbs Olive oil spray Lawrey's garlic salt Onion powder Line a large baking dish with aluminum foil and spray with olive oil spray. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Dip each leg in the egg and water then coat with bread crumbs. Place the breaded legs in the baking dish and sprinkle with the garlic salt and onion powder, then turn each leg over and sprinkle the other side with garlic salt and onion powder. Spray the legs with the olive oil spray. Bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes. The night before New Years Eve The night before New Years Eve I offered to once again do the cooking, and opted to use the left-over chicken in a chicken, vegetable and rice stir-fry. Chicken, Vegetable, and Rice Stir-fry 2 1/2 cups of rice 5 cups of water 2 teaspoons of salt oil for sauteeing 1/4 of an onion, chopped 8 ounces of mushrooms, sliced a handful of snowpeas a handful of olives left-over chicken snipped fresh or dried parsely to taste 1 1/2 cups chicken broth (can be made from 1 1/2 teaspoons of chicken bullion dissolved in 1 1/2 cups of water). (This stir fry can be made with any combination of veggies and meat or without meat. If beef or pork are used then use beef broth instead of chicken broth). Place the rice, water, and 2 1/2 teaspoons of salt in a pan and bring water to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for about 12 minutes, or until the rice is tender and all the water is absorbed. While the rice cooking heat the oil in a pan then add the mushrooms and onions. Sauté for a few minutes until the vegetables are tender. Add the snow peas, olives, chicken, cooked rice, olives, parsley, chicken broth and garlic salt, simmering until the mix is hot. With, a side of fresh-baked rolls the meal was complete. And so we rang out the old year with good food and friends. And on January 1st we rang in the new year with left-overs.
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"Tropical Depression"
by Patti Liszkay Buy it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTPN7NYY "Equal And Opposite Reactions"
by Patti Liszkay Buy it on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa or from The Book Loft of German Village, Columbus, Ohio Or check it out at the Columbus Metropolitan Library
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March 2024
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